As you know, before each baseball game, it's mandatory to play the national anthem. On this first of July night, in that fine midwestern town, the Star Spangled was performed by some children from a local elementary school.

And as those kids honked and wheezed their way through our nation's anthem, the kid on cymbals at least a half beat off bombs bursting in air, the rest of the children blowing notes resembling my car horn, I felt a familiar sense of pride.

I love hearing caterwauling children shriek out the Star Spangled. I love third grade bands lumbering through the difficult tune with all the heart and gusto of Francis Scott Key himself. I both giggle and get a sense of solemnity at the same time.

Hearing those final words, "...the home of the brave", the ump call "play ball!" and I settle back in a plastic stadium seat with a beer and a dog, that always gives me a safe, satisfied, proud feeling of being an American.

I realize that there are people living under tyranny, people who can't get a fair election, people who don't know where a next meal comes from because their stuff was taken by their government. Sometimes I can't even fathom how hard that must be.

And ok, sure, I totally blew that there are 9 and not 11 justices on the Supreme Court. And ok, I muffed that senators last six and not four years....

But damnit, as we head into this Independance Day weekend, I'll step up and say I'm as much of an American as I need to be.

I know that's true, all because of a bunch of kids from Missouri and the magic of AM radio.

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About Me

Raised most of my life in New Mexico, I moved to Northern California in 1997. My friends don't call me a Californian, they say I'm a New Mexican living in California. I think that's true. For about two years after moving, I distanced myself from my home state thinking it backward and remote. Then I began to visit home more frequently and truly learned to love my home state only by gaining perspective. I'm a writer, a painter, a photographer and labor at a "real job" during the days.